THE TEN WORST Berlusconi meltdown. While the outside world has long been mystified by the political longevity of Italy’s comically exuberant three-time prime minister, media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, the high approval ratings he earned at home by his raffish charm and domestic policy successes sagged this year amid sex scandals involving starlets and call girls […]
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To many progressives, one of the most galvanizing aspects of Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency was his pledge to roll back the executive excesses of the Bush-Cheney era and restore a sensible balance between national security and civil liberties in American political life. “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our […]
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First it was insurance companies, then it was banks and that was followed by auto companies. Now, the federal government is putting U.S. taxpayers and utility customers at new risk under a controversial U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee program that is slated to award $18.5 billion, with Atlanta-based Southern Company predicted to be […]
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From Linda McMahon’s blog: On Sunday, the Hartford Courant’s Kevin Rennie published a very eye-opening, must-read column here titled “Simmons’ Curious Affinity for Carter.” The column centers around a relatively recent letter Simmons sent to the former President in which he not only admits to having voted for Carter for President, but also “heaps praise” […]
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By Naomi Freundlich and Maggie Mahar This year the rhetoric around health care reform reached historic levels. Barely a week went by without pundits dissecting some new fact, policy detail or wording change implicit in the various reform plans emerging from Congress. The result was a barrage of media reports, often conflicting, that heralded the […]
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By Greg Anrig At the outset of 2009, President-elect Obama awaited his inauguration with the U.S. economy in a near free fall — more than a half a million jobs were disappearing monthly, consumption and investment levels were plummeting, home foreclosures were soaring, credit was frozen, and no remote sign of a turnaround was in […]
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Governor M. Jodi Rell vetoed both of the legislature’s deficit bills yesterday, calling them “feeble” attempts to solve the state’s budget shortfall. She called instead for lawmakers to grant her the authority to make additional cuts to vital services, between 10% and 15% of any appropriation if the deficit is between 3% and 5%, while […]
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By JCW, CT Blue Fool me once… December 21st, 2009 It’s almost enough to fill one with despair. What’s one definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. What clichés or common phrases are running through my mind? Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat […]
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Because of the budget crisis in Connecticut, a scheduled reduction in the sales tax has been deferred to produce additional revenue. So it made sense that a scheduled reduction in estate taxes should also be put off. And that’s just what the Democratic leadership in the Sate Legislature proposed. But sales taxes fall heaviest on […]
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The U.S. Census Bureau has just released its newest population estimates for Connecticut. From April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2009 Connecticut’s population grew from 3,405,607 to 3,518,288, an increase of only 112,681 or 3.3 %. The previous decade, April 1, 1990 to April 1, 2000 had shown only a slightly higher growth, from 3,287,116 […]
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